Dates: November 29 to December 5, 2012
Where: In the Library
Times: At Lunch Recess and After School until 4:00 each day.
Extended Hours:
Parent Breakfast Sale Friday, November 30 from 8:45 to 10:30
Wednesday, December 5, 2012 2:30 until 6:00
Book Fair Closes 6:00 Wednesday December 5!
Come check us out!!
Over the past week, the fourth graders have been preparing for our fall/winter planting season. They tilled the garden beds and amended the soil with organic fertilizer (“Chickety Doo Doo” has to be the BEST name ever for fertilizer!). Today, they planted some flower seeds (marigolds and nasturtiums) around the edges of the garden beds as rabbit deterrents. Next week, we will plant a variety of winter vegetables, including beets, cabbage, carrots, radishes, turnips, kale, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, brussel sprouts, peas, and onions.
We are also experimenting with self-watering pots/seed-starters. Today, we reused plastic bottles and made pots that suck up water to keep their soil constantly moist. You cut the bottle in half, invert the top half, punch a hole in the lid, and string yarn through the hole. The yarn wicks the water from the reservoir below into the soil, keeping it damp. I did the cutting and hole-punching, and the fourth graders inserted the yarn and filled the pots with soil. To see our inspiration, check out this website:
http://skruben.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-self-watering-seed-starter-pots.html
Here are a few pictures of our seed starters. They are watered and ready to plant seeds in next week!
Last year, Lisa D. connected with an organization called Light in Africa, founded and run by a British woman named Mama Lynn, which helps homeless and orphaned children in Tanzania. This year, we are continuing this relationship. This week, the fourth graders “met” a teenager named Juliana, who was born with disfigured legs. Lisa met Juliana in real life during her trip to Tanzania last February, and we watched some videos and learned about Light in Africa and Juliana’s story. After many months of waiting, Juliana came to the US in August for surgery to remove her lower legs and be fitted with prosthetics. She is currently recuperating in Orange County at Children’s Hospital. The fourth graders were inspired by Juliana’s story and her courage, so we wrote her a letter and made her a book to help her learn English words which will be taken up to her this weekend by a TCS family.
If you would like to learn more about Juliana’s story, you can watch the videos below. We watched the short ones together in class.
Juliana (2 min)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOkH3Zk12Uk
Mama Lynn talking about Light in Africa (27 min) – This video is best for adults.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5HnbYcFryBI#!
Mama Lynn’s Story - Light in Africa – Tanzania (3.5 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyMpPv3a7r8&feature=relmfu
The Children of Light in Africa (6 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKP_iUAcwjY&feature=relmfu
Mirerani Food Kitchen run by Light in Africa (3.5 min)
Before we learn about California’s fascinating history, we are learning about its geography. In order to better understand our state’s four main regions, we are making relief maps. The fourth graders are having to look carefully and study our classroom maps to make sure that their maps are accurate.
We enjoyed looking at real historical maps last week at the La Jolla Map and Atlas Museum. It was interesting to see what cartographers and other people thought the west coast looked like centuries ago before the days of GPS! Check out the maps below that we saw showing California as an island!
Playing math games is a fun way to practice our skills. Here the fourth graders are rolling dice and making rectangles, calculating the area of the rectangles using multiplication facts, trying to use their spacial skills to fit the rectangles together so that there is no empty space on their graph paper, and then practicing multi-digit addition by adding up all the areas.
Sometimes it’s fun to do something just for fun! We enjoyed painting colorful birdhouses to decorate our classroom windows!
Connecting with our second grade reading buddies each week is something the fourth graders look forward to! We do a variety of activities; recently we’ve shared joke books with each other and worked on preparing readers’ theaters (and making puppets) that the groups will present next week. Reading buddies is an opportunity to create cross-grade connections, and it gives the fourth graders a chance to be mentors and friends - academically and socially - to their younger counterparts.
This blog is the ongoing site for the TCS Fourth Grade. Check back frequently for pictures and information about our activities and learning.
One of the exciting things we do in fourth grade is gardening. Last year, we started a relationship with Suzie’s Farm and visited their location in south county. Recently, the Union Tribune printed an article highlighting the farm. Going there is truly a wonderful experience that I can’t wait to share with this year’s class.
Click the link below to read the article:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep/11/crops-and-consciousness/#?popup=true
The fourth graders and their global buddies in Lisa D.’s Kindergarten are doing one last community service project this school year: helping the Monarch School! We watched the video from The Ellen Show and discussed how the Monarch School helps local children affected by homelessness. Yesterday, we looked at the school’s “Wish List,” and talked about how, when helping others, it is important to find out what they need, rather than assuming we know what is best for them. In light of this, I am sharing the Monarch School’s “Wish List,” in the hopes that your family can provide any of the items they desperately need. The TCS children are very excited to do something kind for their fellow San Diego schoolchildren!
* Due to space limitations we currently are not accepting computer items of any kind, books, or backpacks.
Wish List Items – Current Needs
New items only
Here are a few of the finished homophone storyboards we’ve been working on! The homophone sets on each card are underlined.
